The Ascendance Trilogy

This Post is Spoiler Free!

I recently read the Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer A. Nielsen. Because I’m a binge reader and read each book before managing to post the reviews, I’m posting them all together!

The False Prince

Oops. Apparently I only know how to read books in single sittings. I picked up The False Prince (book 1 of the Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer A. Nielsen), planning on reading a few chapters before bed. And I read the entire book… which apparently is my normal…

Let me start by saying that I was first exposed to this book in the form of an audiobook roughly six years ago. Now, if you know me, you know I’m not a fan of audiobooks—I find it hard to concentrate on them, and if I’m doing something while listening, I sometimes get too invested in the story and lose track of what I’m doing. There are other reasons why I don’t like listening to audiobooks, but I’ll have to get into that during another post. Long story short, I ended up listening to this book with my family on a drive to California. I liked it back then, enough to grab the trilogy upon stumbling across it at a Barnes & Noble, but I liked it significantly more whilst reading a physical copy.

For starters, I was able to identify the character development. Seriously, I actually liked the protagonist. He grew a lot during the course of the book, and so did a few of the other characters. I feel like they were written quite well. Honestly, a lot of the book was written quite well. I think the only qualm I had was that in some places, the pacing was a bit too rushed. It made for a quick read, though, so I’m not really complaining.

I am a little bummed, however, that I knew the major plot twist of the book. I wish I could know just how much of the twist I could have guessed from all of the textual clues. So, yeah. Because I had heard the story before, I definitely felt a bit cheated on the experience of the book… but no matter. It was still nice to actually read the story, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next two books have in store!

The Runaway King

It was nice to read this without having the ending spoiled for me. I’ll admit, I did guess the plot twist, but I wasn’t upset about any of it. I will be keeping this fairly short, since I don’t have too many opinions. At the beginning, the protagonist got on my nerves, but somewhere halfway through the book he evened out into the character I loved from the first book. Also, there were some places where I thought it was a bit more violent than necessary, but I love how Jennifer A. Nielsen actually shows lasting pain in her characters. It’s realistic!

All in all, though, the book was easy to read. Plus it’s a decently typical fantasy fantasy (though, no magic… just kings and thieves). If you know me, you know that I love all things fantasy. So, while this may not have left a huge impact on me, I still enjoyed the book.

The Shadow Throne

I’m gonna start by saying… I love Amarinda. I’m pretty sure she’s my favorite character. No spoilers, but oof does she have some good lines and moments!

I think this book was a little harder to guess than the previous two, which was probably good. A couple of things felt a little too perfect, where the protagonist was just a little too lucky, but eh. It didn’t bother me too much. I will add again (something I said about the last book) is the way characters show pain is super realistic. Injuries are lasting. Or, at least, the injuries that are bad enough to last actually do. It’s kinda nice. That’s not shown enough in books, in my opinion.

All in all, I don’t have much to say. The ending was a little rushed, but I wasn’t too bothered by it. I think I feel a little not bothered by the whole series? It was good, just not “grab my attention and make me sing its praises” good. It was easy to read. It was fantasy. I probably won’t ever read it again, but I’m not upset that I did read it. Simple as that.

If you want the whole trilogy (box set), here’s the link!

My Next Read:

9 From the Nine Worlds by Rick Riordan